Most of Missouri has a chance of thunderstorms this weekend, and the northern half of the state could experience some severe weather. The chances for severe weather Saturday afternoon and evening extend as far south as around the Truman Lake and Lake of the Ozarks areas, to north of St. Louis.

The severe weather outlook for Friday and Saturday. (courtesy; National Weather Service, Pleasant Hill)

The severe weather outlook for Friday and Saturday. (courtesy; National Weather Service, Pleasant Hill)

National Weather Service Meteorologist Chris Bowman says a disturbance coming up from Texas will meet an unstable atmosphere in Missouri.

“The chances for tornadoes looks relatively low … I’m not going to rule it out … but really the biggest threat’s probably going to be from large hail and damaging winds.”

Bowman urges Missourians, particularly those who plan to be outside enjoying the weather this weekend, to be prepared to take shelter.

“Thunderstorm winds of 60 to 90 miles-per-hour can still do a fair amount of damage, especially in a mobile home. It could roll that and cause quite a bit of damage, so thunderstorm winds are nothing to take lightly.”

Missouri has already experienced a lot of localized flooding this year, and Bowman says that’s a possibility again.

“Especially if you get a slow-moving thunderstorm. The amount of moisture that’s going to be available to them, a slow-moving thunderstorm could cause a lot of localized flooding. Right now you don’t see a lot of potential for widespread flooding like we had a little bit earlier, a couple of weeks ago, but you just can’t rule out … a thunderstorm’s able to drop localized three-plus inch amounts of rain so that’s always a possibility, flash flooding.

Bowman says Missouri will NOT be seeing activity from a derecho, a type of widespread and damaging wind storm that had been predicted for other parts of the midwest, earlier in the week.

For the latest weather information in your part of the state, listen to your local Missourinet affiliate station and visit these National Weather Service websites:

Pleasant Hill: Northwest Missouri including Kansas City, Kirksville and Moberly

St. Louis: Northeast and eastern Missouri including St. Louis, Columbia and Hannibal

Springfield: Southwest Missouri including Springfield, Fort Leonard Wood and the Lake of the Ozarks

Paducah, KY:  The Bootheel in Southeast Missouri

Davenport, IA:  Scotland and Clark Counties in Northeast Missouri